Bryan, George (1731-1791)[Order to carry out a death sentence against two convicted criminals]

Summary of Content: Order made under Bryan’s authority and signed by ”Jy Mattlock” as secretary. Orders Sheriff James Claypoole to carry out death sentences for Abraham Carlisle and John Roberts on 4 November 1778. Issued by the Supreme Executive Council of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, ”under the hand of the Honorable George Bryan Esquire Vice President.”

Background: Bryan served as a member of the Stamp Act Congress., Roberts and Carlisle, both Quakers, had been convicted of high treason. In his Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution (1850), Benson J. Lossing weighed in on the case and the impact of the men’s execution., , This act has been cited a hundred times as evidence against the claims to the exercise of uniform humanity on the part of the patriots, and magnified into a foul murder, justified by no plea of public expediency. The facts prove otherwise…. While they abstained from open hostility to the Revolutionary government, and refused to bear arms for the king, they gave secret aid, far more potent to the enemies of liberty. They were employed by Joseph Galloway and his loyal friends as secret agents in detecting foes to the government….According to the rules of war and of state policy, their execution was expedient and salutary in effect. It was a subject for bitter vituperation on the part of the Tories… (Lossing, II:2)